Seven weeks ago tonight I returned from Europe to
report on my meeting with Premier Khrushchev and the others. His grim
warnings about the future of the world, his aide memoire on Berlin,
his subsequent speeches and threats which he and his agents have
launched, and the increase in the Soviet military budget that he has
announced, have all prompted a series of decisions by the
Administration and a series of consultations with the members of the
NATO organization. In Berlin, as you recall, he intends to bring to an
end, through a stroke of the pen, first our legal rights to be
in West Berlin --and secondly our ability to make good on our
commitment to the two million free people of that city. That we cannot
permit.
We
are clear about what must be done--and we intend to do it. I want to
talk frankly with you tonight about the first steps that we shall
take. These actions will require sacrifice on the part of many of our
citizens. More will be required in the future. They will require, from
all of us, courage and perseverance in the years to come. But if we
and our allies act out of strength and unity of purpose--with calm
determination and steady nerves--using restraint in our words as well
as our weapons--I am hopeful that both peace and freedom will be
sustained.
The
immediate threat to free men is in West Berlin. But that isolated
outpost is not an isolated problem. The threat is worldwide. Our
effort must be equally wide and strong, and not be obsessed by any
single manufactured crisis. We face a challenge in Berlin, but there
is also a challenge in Southeast Asia, where the borders are less
guarded, the enemy harder to find, and the dangers of communism less
apparent to those who have so little. We face a challenge in our own
hemisphere, and indeed wherever else the freedom of human beings is at
stake.
Let me
remind you that the fortunes of war and diplomacy left the free people
of West Berlin, in 1945, 110 miles behind the Iron Curtain.
This map makes very clear the problem that we
face. The white is West Germany--the East is the area controlled by
the Soviet Union, and as you can see from the chart, West Berlin is
110 miles within the area which the Soviets now dominate--which is
immediately controlled by the so-called East German regime.
We are
there as a result of our victory over Nazi Germany--and our basic
rights to be there, deriving from that victory, include both our
presence in West Berlin and the enjoyment of access across East
Germany. These rights have been repeatedly confirmed and recognized in
special agreements with the Soviet Union. Berlin is not a part of East
Germany, but a separate territory under the control of the allied
powers. Thus our rights there arc clear and deep-rooted. But in
addition to those rights is our commitment to sustain--and defend, if
need be--the opportunity for more than two million people to determine
their own future and choose their own way of life.
II.
Thus, our presence in West Berlin, and our access thereto, cannot be
ended by any act of the Soviet government. The NATO shield was long
ago extended to cover West Berlin--and we have given our word that an
attack upon that city will be regarded as an attack upon us all.
For West Berlin--lying exposed110 miles
inside East Germany, surrounded by Soviet troops and close to Soviet
supply lines, has many roles. It is more than a showcase of liberty, a
symbol, an island of freedom in a Communist sea. It is even more than
a link with the Free World, a beacon of hope behind the Iron Curtain,
an escape hatch for refugees.
West Berlin is all of that. But above all it
has now become--as never before--the great testing place of Western
courage and will, a focal point where our solemn commitments
stretching back over the years since 1945, and Soviet ambitions now
meet in basic confrontation.
It would be a mistake for others to look upon
Berlin, because of its location, as a tempting target. The United
States is there; the United Kingdom and France are there; the pledge
of NATO is there--and the people of Berlin are there. It is as secure,
in that sense, as the rest of us--for we cannot separate its safety
from our own.
I hear it said that West Berlin is militarily
untenable. And so was Bastogne. And so, in fact, was Stalingrad. Any
dangerous spot is tenable if men--brave men--will make it so.
We do not want to fight--but we have fought
before. And others in earlier times have made the same dangerous
mistake of assuming that the West was too selfish and too soft and too
divided to resist invasions of freedom in other lands. Those who
threaten to unleash the forces of war on a dispute over West Berlin
should recall the words of the ancient philosopher: "A man who
causes fear cannot be free from fear."
We cannot and will not permit the Communists
to drive us out of Berlin, either gradually or by force. For the
fulfillment of our pledge to that city is essential to the morale and
security of Western Germany, to the unity of Western Europe, and to
the faith of the entire Free World. Soviet strategy has long been
aimed, not merely at Berlin, but at dividing and neutralizing all of
Europe, forcing us back on our own shores. We must meet our oft-stated
pledge to the free peoples of West Berlin--and maintain our rights and
their safety, even in the face of force--in order to maintain the
confidence of other free peoples in our word and our resolve. The
strength of the alliance on which our security depends is dependent in
turn on our willingness to meet our commitments to them.
III.
So long as the Communists insist that they are preparing to end by
themselves unilaterally our rights in West Berlin and our commitments
to its people, we must be prepared to defend those rights and those
commitments. We will at all times be ready to talk, if talk will help.
But we must also be ready to resist with force, if force is used upon
us. Either alone would fail. Together, they can serve the cause of
freedom and peace.
The new preparations that we shall make to
defend the peace are part of the long-term build-up in our strength
which has been underway since January. They are based on our needs to
meet a world-wide threat, on a basis which stretches far beyond the
present Berlin crisis. Our primary purpose is neither propaganda nor
provocation--but preparation.
A first need is to hasten progress toward the
military goals which the North Atlantic allies have set for
themselves. In Europe today nothing less will suffice. We will put
even greater resources into fulfilling those goals, and we look to our
allies to do the same.
The supplementary defense build-ups that I
asked from the Congress in March and May have already started moving
us toward these and our other defense goals. They included an increase
in the size of the Marine Corps, improved readiness of our reserves,
expansion of our air and sea lift, and stepped-up procurement of
needed weapons, ammunition, and other items. To insure a continuing
invulnerable capacity to deter or destroy any aggressor, they provided
for the strengthening of our missile power and for putting 50% of our
B-52 and B-47 bombers on a ground alert which would send them on their
way with 15 minutes' warning.
These measures must be speeded up, and still
others must now be taken. We must have sea and air lift capable of
moving our forces quickly and in large numbers to any part of the
world.
But even more importantly, we need the
capability of placing in any critical area at the appropriate time a
force which, combined with those of our allies, is large enough to
make clear our determination and our ability to defend our rights at
all costs--and to meet all levels of aggressor pressure with whatever
levels of force are required. We intend to have a wider choice than
humiliation or all-out nuclear action.
While it is unwise at this time either to
call up or send abroad excessive numbers of these troops before they
are needed, let me make it clear that I intend to take, as time goes
on, whatever steps are necessary to make certain that such forces can
be deployed at the appropriate time without lessening our ability to
meet our commitments elsewhere.
Thus, in the days and months ahead, I shall
not hesitate to ask the Congress for additional measures, or exercise
any of the executive powers that I possess to meet this threat to
peace. Everything essential to the security of freedom must be done;
and if that should require more men, or more taxes, or more controls,
or other new powers, I shall not hesitate to ask them. The measures
proposed today will be constantly studied, and altered as necessary.
But while we will not let panic shape our policy, neither will we
permit timidity to direct our program.
Accordingly, I am now taking the following
steps:
(1) I am tomorrow requesting the Congress for
the current fiscal year an additional $3,247,000,000 of appropriations
for the Armed Forces.
(2) To fill out our present Army Divisions,
and to make more men available for prompt deployment, I am requesting
an increase in the Army's total authorized strength from 875,000 to
approximately I million men.
(3) 1 am requesting an increase of 29,000 and
63,000 men respectively in the active duty strength of the Navy and
the Air Force.
(4) To fulfill these manpower needs, I am
ordering that our draft calls be doubled and tripled in the coming
months; I am asking the Congress for authority to order to active duty
certain ready reserve units and individual reservists, and to extend
tours of duty; and, under that authority, I am planning to order to
active duty a number of air transport squadrons and Air National Guard
tactical air squadrons, to give us the airlift capacity and protection
that we need. Other reserve forces will be called up when needed.
(5) Many ships and planes once headed for
retirement are to be retained or reactivated, increasing our air power
tactically and our sealift, airlift, and anti-submarine warfare
capability. In addition, our strategic air power will be increased by
delaying the deactivation of B-47 bombers.
(6) Finally, some $1.8 billion--about half of
the total sum--is needed for the procurement of non-nuclear weapons,
ammunition and equipment.
The details on all these requests will be
presented to the Congress tomorrow. Subsequent steps will be taken to
suit subsequent needs. Comparable efforts for the common defense are
being discussed with our NATO allies. For their commitment and
interest are as precise as our own.
And let me add that I am well aware of the
fact that many American families will bear the burden of these
requests. Studies or careers will be interrupted; husbands and sons
will be called away; incomes in some cases will be reduced. But these
are burdens which must be borne if freedom is to be
defended--Americans have willingly borne them before--and they will
not flinch from the task now.
IV.
We have another sober responsibility. To recognize the possibilities
of nuclear war in the missile age, without our citizens knowing what
they should do and where they should go if bombs begin to fall, would
be a failure of responsibility. In May, I pledged a new start on Civil
Defense. Last week, I assigned, on the recommendation of the Civil
Defense Director, basic responsibility for this program to the
Secretary of Defense, to make certain it is administered and
coordinated with our continental defense efforts at the highest
civilian level. Tomorrow, I am requesting of the Congress new funds
for the following immediate objectives: to identify and mark space in
existing structures--public and private--that could be used for
fall-out shelters in case of attack; to stock those shelters with
food, water, first-aid kits and other minimum essentials for survival;
to increase their capacity; to improve our air-raid warning and
fallout detection systems, including a new household warning system
which is now under development; and to take other measures that will
be effective at an early date to save millions of lives if needed.
In the event of an attack, the lives of those
families which are not hit in a nuclear blast and fire can still be
saved--if they can be warned to take shelter and if that shelter is
available. We owe that kind of insurance to our families--and to our
country. In contrast to our friends in Europe, the need for this kind
of protection is new to our shores. But the time to start is now. In
the coming months, I hope to let every citizen know what steps he can
take without delay to protect his family in case of attack. I know
that you will want to do no less.
V.
The addition of $207 million in Civil Defense appropriations brings
our total new defense budget requests to $3.454 billion, and a total
of $47.5 billion for the year. This is an increase in the defense
budget of $6 billion since January, and has resulted in official
estimates of a budget deficit of over $5 billion. The Secretary of the
Treasury and other economic advisers assure me, however, that our
economy has the capacity to bear this new request.
We are recovering strongly from this year's
recession. The increase in this last quarter of our year of our total
national output was greater than that for any postwar period of
initial recovery. And yet, wholesale prices are actually lower than
they were during the recession, and consumer prices are only 1/4 of 1%
higher than they were last October. In fact, this last quarter was the
first in eight years in which our production has increased without an
increase in the overall-price index. And for the first time since the
fall of 1959, our gold position has improved and the dollar is more
respected abroad. These gains, it should be stressed, are being
accomplished with Budget deficits far smaller than those of the 1958
recession.
This improved business outlook means improved
revenues; and I intend to submit to the Congress in January a budget
for the next fiscal year which will be strictly in balance.
Nevertheless, should an increase in taxes be needed--because of events
in the next few months--to achieve that balance, or because of
subsequent defense rises, those increased taxes will be requested in
January.
Meanwhile, to help make certain that the
current deficit is held to a safe level, we must keep down all
expenditures not thoroughly justified in budget requests. The luxury
of our current post-office deficit must be ended. Costs in military
procurement will be closely scrutinized--and in this effort I welcome
the cooperation of the Congress. The tax loopholes I have
specified--on expense accounts, overseas income, dividends, interest,
cooperatives and others--must be closed.
I realize that no public revenue
measure is welcomed by everyone. But I am certain that every American
wants to pay his fair share, and not leave the burden of defending
freedom entirely to those who bear arms. For we have mortgaged our
very future on this defense--and we cannot fail to meet our
responsibilities.
VI.
But I must emphasize again that the choice is not merely between
resistance and retreat, between atomic holocaust and surrender. Our
peace-time military posture is traditionally defensive; but our
diplomatic posture need not be. Our response to the Berlin crisis will
not be merely military or negative. It will be more than merely
standing firm. For we do not intend to leave it to others to choose
and monopolize the forum and the framework of discussion. We do not
intend to abandon our duty to mankind to seek a peaceful solution.As
signers of the UN Charter, we shall always be prepared to discuss
international problems with any and all nations that are willing to
talk--and listen--with reason. If they have proposals--not demands--we
shall hear them. If they seek genuine understanding--not concessions
of our rights--we shall meet with them. We have previously indicated
our readiness to remove any actual irritants in West Berlin, but the
freedom of that city is riot negotiable. We cannot negotiate with
those who say "What's mine is mine and what's yours is
negotiable." But we are willing to consider any arrangement or
treaty in Germany consistent with the maintenance of peace and
freedom, and with the legitimate security interests of all nations.
We recognize the Soviet Union's historical
concern about their security in Central and Eastern Europe, after a
series of ravaging invasions, and we believe arrangements can be
worked out which will help to meet those concerns, and make it
possible for both security and freedom to exist in this troubled area.
For it is not the freedom of West Berlin which is "abnormal"
in Germany today, but the situation in that entire divided country. If
anyone doubts the legality of our rights in Berlin, we are ready to
have it submitted to international adjudication. If anyone doubts the
extent to which our presence is desired by the people of West Berlin,
compared to East German feelings about their regime, we are ready to
have that question submitted to a free vote in Berlin and, if
possible, among all the German people. And let us hear at that time
from the two and one-half million refugees who have fled the Communist
regime in East Germany--voting for Western-type freedom with their
feet.
The world is not deceived by the Communist
attempt to label Berlin as a hot-bed of war. There is peace in Berlin
today. The source of world trouble and tension is Moscow, not Berlin.
And if war begins, it will have begun in Moscow and not Berlin.
For the choice of peace or war is largely
theirs, not ours. It is the Soviets who have stirred up this crisis.
It is they who are trying to force a change. It is they who have
opposed free elections. It is they who have rejected an all-German
peace treaty, and the rulings of international law. And as Americans
know from our history on our own old frontier, gun battles are caused
by outlaws, and not by officers of the peace.
In short, while we are ready to defend our
interests, we shall also be ready to search for peace--in quiet
exploratory talks--in formal or informal meetings. We do not want
military considerations to dominate the thinking of either East or
West., And Mr. Khrushchev may find that his invitation to other
nations to join in a meaningless treaty may lead to their inviting him
to join in the community of peaceful men, in abandoning the use of
force, and in respecting the sanctity of agreements.
While all of these efforts go on, we must not
be diverted from our total responsibilities, from other dangers, from
other tasks. If new threats in Berlin or elsewhere should cause us to
weaken our program of assistance to the developing nations who are
also under heavy pressure from the same source, or to halt our efforts
for realistic disarmament, or to disrupt or slow down our economy, or
to neglect the education of our children, then those threats will
surely be the most successful and least costly maneuver in Communist
history. For we can afford all these efforts, and more--but we cannot
afford not to meet this challenge.
And the challenge is not to us alone. It is a
challenge to every nation which asserts its sovereignty under a system
of liberty. It is a challenge to all those who want a world of free
choice. It is a special challenge to the Atlantic Community--the
heartland of human freedom.
We in the West must move together in building
military strength. We must consult one another more closely than ever
before. We must together design our proposals for peace, and labor
together as they are pressed at the conference table. And together we
must share the burdens and the risks of this effort.
The Atlantic Community, as we know it, has
been built in response to challenge: the challenge of European chaos
in 1947, of the Berlin blockade in 1948, the challenge of Communist
aggression in Korea in 1950. Now, standing strong and prosperous,
after an unprecedented decade of progress, the Atlantic Community will
not forget either its history or the principles which gave it meaning.
The solemn vow each of us gave to West Berlin
in time of peace will not be broken in time of danger. If we do not
meet our commitments to Berlin, where will we later stand? If we are
not true to our word there, all that we have achieved in collective
security, which relies on these words, will mean nothing. And if there
is one path above all others to war, it is the path of weakness and
disunity.
Today, the endangered frontier of freedom
runs through divided Berlin. We want it to remain a frontier of peace.
This is the hope of every citizen of the Atlantic Community; every
citizen of Eastern Europe; and, I am confident, every citizen of the
Soviet Union. For I cannot believe that the Russian people--who
bravely suffered enormous losses in the Second World War would now
wish to see the peace upset once more in Germany. The Soviet
government alone can convert Berlin's frontier of peace into a pretext
for war.
The steps I have indicated tonight are aimed
at avoiding that war. To sum it all up: we seek peace--but we shall
not surrender. That is the central meaning of this crisis, and the
meaning of your government's policy.
With your help, and the help of other free
men, this crisis can be surmounted. Freedom can prevail--and peace can
endure.
I would like to close with a personal word.
When I ran for the Presidency of the United States, I knew that this
country faced serious challenges, but I could not realize--nor could
any man realize who does not bear the burdens of this office--how
heavy and constant would be those burdens.
Three times in my life-time our country and
Europe have been involved in major wars. In each case serious
misjudgments were made on both sides of the intentions of others,
which brought about great devastation.
Now, in the thermonuclear age, any
misjudgment on either side about the intentions of the other could
rain more devastation in several hours than has been wrought in all
the wars of human history.
Therefore I, as President and
Commander-in-Chief, and all of us as Americans, are moving through
serious days. I shall bear this responsibility under our Constitution
for the next three and one-half .years, but I am sure that we all,
regardless of our occupations, will do our very best for our country,
and for our cause. For all of us want to see our children grow up in a
country at peace, and in a world where freedom endures.
I know that sometimes we get impatient,
we wish for some immediate action that would end our perils. But I
must tell you that there is no quick and easy solution. The Communists
control over a billion people, and they recognize that if we should
falter, their success would be imminent.
We must look to long days ahead, which if we
are courageous and persevering can bring us what we all desire.
In these days and weeks I ask for your help,
and your advice. I ask for your suggestions, when you think we could
do better.
All of us, I know, love our country, and we
shall all do our best to serve it.
In meeting my responsibilities in these
coming months as President, I need your good will, and your
support--and above all, your prayers.
Thank you, and good night
John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library -
Columbia Point - Boston, Massachusetts 02125 Tel: 1-866-JFK-1960
Fax: 617-514-1652 Email:kennedy.library@nara.gov
John Fitzgerald
Kennedy Library Foundation - Columbia Point - Boston, Massachusetts
02125 Tel: 617-514-1550
Fax: 617-436-3395
Email:Foundation@JFKLFoundation.org